6/15 Season Three, Episode 15: The Pharoah’s Engineer-Scarecrow and Mrs King

Time to visit the Teepee… eerrrr I mean T.P! T.P Aquinas..We hear Lee talking through the door [lol here’s hoping it’s not top secret stuff Lee.. your voice is really loud out in the hallway! ] and it’s so smooth and deep I’d be totally drawn to listen to it how about you?!

Lee: TP, you’re plugged into this town. What’s the scuttlebutt?TP: Food for thought! An overworked and undervalued little phrase. And so delightfully succinct, and so perfectly right…[ROFL- Food For Thought would be a great SMK episode title! Do you think this is an smk in joke?!][TP seems overjoyed with the Chinese takeaway.. and gets out his chopsticks.. Hmm I think Lee brought it to him?]…There’s nothing like a potpourri of gastronomic delights…[Lee has a little grin when he hears potpourri.. gah!!!! this ghastly phrase again?!!! Why are we hearing it again here?? anyone?? I think the writing room had a bet going – $50- to any writer who can fit ‘potpourri’ into an episode! (I came to the same conclusion Janet!! saw your comment and had to laugh – I’d just written the same thing in this post! only you came to this conclusion much earlier than I! ]…from the East to clear out the mental cobwebs. Ah — marinated sea anemone?Lee: TP, I’m here to talk about mercenaries, not sea anemone. Now what’s going on stateside, huh?[Ummm why would TP know? Isn’t an antiquarian a dude who knows about old history stuff?]TP: You know, it’s interesting you should ask. It seems that Mr. Murder-for-Money himself is in town. Frank Durran.[Hey Lee you should have looked it up on your massive computer in your car.. that should have given you an alert alert alert! but nooo instead Lee finds out an assassin is in town from a history expert Ahhh smk.. Did you notice that already in this episode we’ve had 3 massive coincidences? 1) that that van got into an accident with map in it. 2) that Lee brought Amanda along to visit Birchwood – lol I don’t really know what that’s all about yet haaaa but I can pretty much assume it’s to do with the case of the week! and 3) now Lee visits TP who knows about Durran- the baddie of the week.. Aie. A few too many coincidences for me to be enthralled with this plot guys.. throw a few more ‘’potpourri’s in and I’ll be completely distracted ]Lee: Durann’s in DC?TP: It does display a certain elan, doesn’t it? Ace agent gone wrong suddenly returns to his old stomping ground? Very romantic.
[And on paper- a worthy adversary for Lee! How very romantic I wonder if he’ll really be one! ]Lee: Why is he here?[rofl. I’m shocked TP would know Durran is here.. but that he would know why he’s here? rofl!!! If he knows this that’s too much! Who needs the agency.. just ask teepee!]TP: Well, it’s hard to say. But he’s engaged in some highly selective recruiting — and, he’s paying top dollar… …Oh, and something called pyramid’s been mentioned — a code name, I suppose. Mean anything?[roflmbo!!!! It seems it wasn’t that hard to say after all!! whwhahaha..
This really is too much! There is no gathering of clues so far – just people telling Lee and Amanda everything that seems unconnected but isn’t. Aie.. this plot!! I already know there’s a pyramid going on in this ep because of that blue one we saw next to Durran..]Lee: No. No, but I’ll get on it. Is there anything else?[Anything else? rofl!! I’m shocked Lee doesn’t ask Lee where Jimmy Hoffa’s body is!!! ]TP: Nothing at the moment, but I’ll continue to sift through the tea leaves. Oh, along the same subject, Lee, my boy — there’s a Turkish coffeehouse I frequent this time of day…[Lee my boy? Seems TP is a bit of a father figure to Lee as well as Rupert. How interesting that they are both in this episode.. does this mean anything? or with all this really lame plot so far am I to presume the writers couldn’t have done anything intentionally?! rofl! I’ll go with the idea that maybe the writers wrote the character’s stories better than the actual plot of the week.. yeah.. I’ll go with that! Err sorry I digress! Potpourri!] …My man Ishmael brews a remarkably stimulating concoction, he calls it coffee, but it’s so very much more. Perhaps I could interest you —[That’s enough kooky charm for me.. I’m fond of TP, but this is all just a bit too much! So far, this whole episode is a bit too much!]Lee: Oh, no, no, no…No thank you, I’m still on the clock……But, uh — go easy on Ishmael’s brew, huh? I may still need you.[rofl.. Oh Lee does TP have to tell you everything?! lol!!]
The scene finishes with Lee leaving TP to his eating..

So is Lee visiting TP because of the story that Rupert told Amanda? and Amanda encouraging Lee to check it out?? Or.. is this solely because of the information Billy gave? I guess Billy was talking mercenaries.. so I’m guessing Lee didn’t visit TP because of Amanda and Rupert.

What do you all make of it? I sooo can’t remember this plot.. but it all feels really clunky so far! How to distract the audience from clunky coincidences driving the plot? Hmm throw in potpourri a few times to cover the stench.. then.. Hmm let’s have a kooky guy fuss over Chinese anemone and wow us with his vocab.. and… let’s not forget some Lee dimples thrown in. oh yeah.. I’m distracted!!! Plot? What plot?! who cares..The best thing about this episode so far?? Lee’s dimples… that and Amanda being back on the job!!! Can’t wait to hear what you all think- ready to share???

Forget about the SMK writers, I think we should see who seriously can use the word “potpourri” the most in their comments. 🙂

I totally forgot that the head baddie was a former Ace agent. He’s not as good looking as Lee though – maybe that was his downfall…couldn’t get the ladies so he quit and started working for big $$$.

I’ve always found T.P. to be somewhat of an endearing figure. Not sure why though. Maybe because he gets very excited about food even though I wouldn’t eat what he eats. I love food too, and when I’m eating a meal, I’m often thinking about what I’ll get to eat at my next one. Grocery stores are my favorite stores to shop in blush. Anyway, back to T.P. I get the feeling that Lee has always been a charmer – not just with the ladies. I get the sense that he must have like whatever class he had with T.P. and was a star student. Maybe not in an intellectual way, but in that stereotypically cool way where Lee just gets it and knows the answers by instinct rather than having to work at it. I’m guessing T.P. must have liked that.

I never thought about how T.P. knew all this stuff about Duran. I think maybe he just has his ear to the ground and talks with his contacts on a regular basis to see what’s going on. I think the one thing T.P. likes just as much, if not more, than food is having information. I think he is a collector in that regard. He’s not impressive physically, but he more than makes up for it in the information business.

Oooohh!!! Drooling over that side view pic of Lee with that big dimple and gleam in his eye…wow…

OH, iwsod, it was a good thing I was not drinking my coffee or it would have been all over my screen 😂 I got my husband’s attention with my snickering. I love that we can make fun of and laugh at a show that we love so much. Just like SMK, it’s fans don’t take it seriously 😀

I’m getting the idea that T.P is Lee’s “go to when I’m stuck” guy, at least in terms of Washington DC. I don’t think Lee’s taking Rupert’s story at all seriously, so he’s following Billy’s orders to dig something up — probably working overtime to make up for his Birchwood visit. If they’real going to use “potpourri” in the dialogue, this time fits a lot better than when Lee used it. T.P is quirky and talking strange the whole time, so it kind of fits with his personality. When Lee used it, it just grated on me.

Oh, and I don’t really see this visit as a coincidence — Lee’s a good agent, and he knows which of his connections are might have info relating to a given situation. I actually see the computer alert on ‘scorpion dude’ from the last ep as more coincidental. I mean, if you’re a hired assassin, as both Scorpion and Durran appear to be, you’re going to be entering the country secretly, right? So the agency just sort of found out, after the fact (not soon enough to nab him) that Scorpion had arrived? Whereas here, Lee is actually hunting for clues and knows where to look. I’m guessing this is not his only visit to an informant, but the first one that turned up anything.

Hey, maybe TP is involved in some shady deals for rare books, and so is plugged in to the black market, and consequently the mercenary scene. I know he shows up in later episodes, so I’ll have to see if this theory fits.

Hey Happy Camper, I don’t see Lee’s visit to TP as a coincidence either.
visiting birchwood that morning will turn out to be a big one though – this is smk so we can totally guess that at this point! Night pirates?!
and.. having Amanda’s very first visit be that morning? when Rupert needs her to listen because Lee has stopped listening? super coincidence.

Yep I agree that Lee went to T.P to work on the blueprint thingy..

Maybe I’ve missed it so far, but it just doesn’t seem to make sense TP would know anything.. much less that an assassin has arrived in town – seems like if you need Lee to find out something, just get TP to tell him is the strategy being used here.. and it doesn’t IMHO make for a good story..
Soooo throw in OTT kooky behaviour from TP a joke here or there.. and some Lee dimples and no one will notice..

whoooo the book underworld huh- maybe! At this point anything is possible 🙂

In reference to Lee’s use of the word “potpourri”, maybe as Lee searched for words to communicate to Amanda something that was a new thing for him to describe, he was reaching for a vocabulary that wasn’t common to him. Maybe he talks to TP often? Maybe he was drawing from TP’s vocabulary? maybe i am going to sprain my back trying to do this mental gymnastics???

What is this ‘potpourri’ discussion all about? I really don’t get it. Perhaps it’s because I’m not a native speeker. :O Pleeeease, enlighten me.
I didn’t mind Lee using it in PFK and I don’t mind it now. So what’s wrong with using it, or which other word would you have used (here and in PFK)?

I guess, for me, it’s just a strange word to be using in this context. It’s much more common to use “potpourri” in the sense of a mixture of dried flower petals and spices, to scent a room or clothing drawer. Using it in this way, to refer to a mixture or variety, can be done but it’s not the way we hear people around us talking. Someone with a fairly down-to-earth vocabulary like Lee — it just doesn’t fit.

Your comment made me curious, so I looked up the origin of the word. Turns out it was a French word for a stew made from a variety of meats, which is a lot closer to the way it’s being used here. But it still sounds funny (and a bit pretentious) to us, through being less common.

the word “potpouri” seems like a word spoken by a woman who owns a home decorating store or something. It feels like a suburban word, not the kind of word that a spy who moves in the fast lane would use to describe anything, let alone a woman. But I can make it endearing if I make myself believe that lee is reaching for new ways of communicating something important to Amanda. And it can make some sense to me that he had heard the word used by TP often enough so he was familiar with it. Maybe?

I can’t really add to what Happycamper and Morley have said – other than to say I feel the same way.
Potpourri is something unconventional old guys say or women.. and well not many women would say it. Unless we were explaining what the flowery smell was in the room.. lol..

IMHO it’s part of TP’s character that he would use uncommon words- his vocabulary is very broad.. like how he uses ‘elan’ I rarely if ever hear that..

Also.. Potpourri is lame for Lee to say, but ‘Potpourri of personality’ tips this waaaaaaay over the edge into ‘I’m beginning to fear for Lee’s manhood’ territory!!!!

I always took it that Lee was meeting with TP to get info because Billy wanted him out poking around. I don’t think it has anything to do with Rupert having another tale. So far, in Lee’s mind, those two things are completely unrelated.

For the first time as I read TP’s lines, it sounded like that skeevy Plato guy from Sour Grapes. I wonder if the producers put the two characters together into TP’s character?

TP’s an interesting character – an antiquarian (rare and antique book dealer or scholar) who seems to have the skinny on the all the espionage/criminal activity in DC. Did he used to be an agent? Is the harmless old antiquarian gig just a cover? I guess it means he can get a great deal of info without arousing suspicion, but his in-depth knowledge of who’s who in the criminal/espionage world suggests to me he has some extensive experience in the spy business.
He’s an informant for Lee but not anyone else in the agency, or so it seems so far.

Thinking about this more, TP is like a gentrified version of Augie. Someone outside the agency but who has connections, associates, an ear to the ground, the inside info on the maybe not so obvious goings-on in town. I can imagine there are people out there like that that agents use to round out or fill in info gaps.
Augie is down and dirty. His connections would be more at the criminal end of the spectrum. TP is an academic/intellectual. His info seems to be more up-market. Both these sources together would cover quite a lot of info territory for Lee.
(The academics/intellectuals I know do tend to be strange people – brilliant but eccentric.)

Seriously? HOW many cartons is TP eating from?!?!? I count five! Is he that hungry? Is his desk the equivalent of a clown car? And where on earth did the takeaways (sorry — takeout for Americans) come from if they have marinated sea anemone? Oy…

I make it six as well because that was also my main takeaway from these screen grabs (“takeaway”. Get it? LOL) And seriously, how much MSG would he be consuming if he actually ate all that? Such a skinny guy for such terrible eating habits!

Actually, there is a lot of food in this episode so far. None of it particularly sensible. And this makes me think of this scene – it seems overdone, too much (and this ties in with the use of “pot pourri”). If this was a book, I’d say it needed a good (rather brutal) edit. TP seems to be exaggerated so that he’s not so much quirky and funny as a bit irritating.

Indeed the whole episode seem to be suffering from split personality: the serious baddies preparing Armageddon and then the overly comical sketched-out oldies and kooky professor. The insane amount of food so far is just icing on the cake (sorry, couldn’t resist)

I figured Lee brought TP the selection of dishes so that he could get information.. it seems to be little arrangement they have..
as you’ve mentioned – in welcome to America Mr Brand Lee Lee brought TP the liqueur filled chocolates.
I think TP would give Lee the info anyway.. but this way they are both happier..

Lee probably bought him a selection of six different dishes so TP could find something there he likes.. not necessarily because he would eat six boxes? maybe?

and I know that Vietnamese eat sea anemone.. maybe it was a Vietnamese take away? or Vietnamese/Chinese? who knows!!

Depending on which Chinese restaurant I order from I usually get a number of containers. I ordered Shrimp Egg Foo Young recently and I ended up with three containers, one for the patties, one for rice, and one for gravy. If I’d ordered anything else I would have had another two or three containers. I assume they are trying to keep the dishes from getting soggy before you get it home. At least that’s my best guess. I have sometimes wondered if I got the right order when I see all that’s in the bag, but everything is packed individually.

That’s true. The Chinese places where I live do that, too. And, every main dish comes with either rice or noodles, so you’re bound to get 2 boxes for each main dish you order. That’s why you always have leftovers from Chinese food, there’s always more that comes with your order than you expect. Hope TP has a fridge to keep his leftover sea anemone in (wherever he got that from).

COMMENTING GUIDELINES

This blog is for the fun and indepth discussion of Scarecrow and Mrs King episodes.
Please be respectful of all opinions :)

***JWWM does not refer to future events in the show - it stays with the characters on their journey - explores where they are, and what has come before..
therefore- No spoilers beyond where the walk is up to please :) Thanks***

***All posts can be commented on at anytime- Posts are always open for people to add new insights to as they watch or rewatch ***

This Blog is rated PG - Just like the TV show! If it would appear in an smk episode, it can appear here! ;)

Any problems, issues or questions feel free to let me know. (iwsod@optusnet.com.au)
*By posting on this blog, you are agreeing to these guidelines*